Random Thoughts

No, I still haven't gotten around to a Nicholas 1-year post, but maybe things will finally calm down next week and I will get to it. Hmm, yeah, doubtful. But here are a few random thoughts from today:

• Apparently the only time the baby swings at our local playground are in the shade is before 9:30am. This actually works out well because that is also the only time of day that it is cool enough to go for a walk. I have the feeling Nicholas and I will be taking lots of walks first thing in the morning. What we've been doing is taking a roundabout route to the playground so I can get a half hour walk in even though it is only 5 minutes away.
• It finally feels like summer to me. Now this could be the 90 degrees and humidity we've had, but we had some of that a few weeks ago. No, I think it is the sense of freedom. That and maybe the way the light is this time of year. I submitted the final copy of my dissertation yesterday. The defense was the last point when I could fail or be held up, but I needed to do some copyediting and formatting fixes on the dissertation and submit the final version. A formality but one I needed to take care of. Anyway, it is done and I have now been officially taken out of the department's system of graduate students, so I'm really and truly done. Ahhhh!!!
• Nicholas is still at the same stage with walking that he was 2 months ago. He has stood up on his own a few more times, but he doesn't do it regularly and it doesn't seem to have changed anything. He still things of walking as part of a game rather than a mode of locomotion. Oh well, I see no need to push him.
• Nicholas has never had lots of bottles, but cutting them out entirely has made food even more of an issue. He now eats 5 times a day and often goes through 4 or 5 different foods at a sitting because he gets bored of them pretty quickly. This means I spend most of his mealtimes running back and forth to the kitchen trying to prepare his next thing (and figure out what it should be). He is also eating lots of foods that are probably not great for him because I am at a loss for what to give him and they are so convenient. Case in point: when he wakes up from his nap he and I are probably going to have chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch for the third day in a row. I figure the frozen ones baked at home aren't nearly as bad as McDonald's, although at least the ones at McDonald's looked like real meat when I bit into them instead of grayish brown mush. I am never buying Tyson's nuggets again. Lesson learned.

I know there were other things I had been planning to post about, but I can't think of them right now, so I'm going to end this here and use the rest of his nap to get some work done. I am playing catchup in getting my courses set up for next year. For example, the book orders for fall classes was due months ago (i.e. months before I had the job), so I need to finish the syllabi so I can order books.